Another Van Gogh Report

 Yes, yes...  I know.  *sigh*  Another Vincent van Gogh related thing.  WELL!  Let me tell you about not his paintings, but his drawings!  Did you know he did drawings?  It makes sense right?  A painter would for sure draw.  For some reason I did not put two and two together myself.  So, I've done some research regarding his drawings.  There is some relation to his paintings in here, because when you see the two next to each other you can't help but compare.

Look at this drawing, "Avenue of Poplars", for example.  Here we see a drawing that is very much like a photo.  It is still, silent, realistic.  One thing that stands out to me is there is nothing in the sky.  How can a man who makes every single painting he touches move and come to life draw something so stark?  It's really remarkable to me how significantly different his drawings were to his paintings.

Let's compare that drawing to my (currently) favorite painting of Van Gogh's, "Langs de Siene".  What are you seeing, aside from color, that's different here.  I see a man, trees, shade...  None of that is different.  Ah yes, I see the sky bending with the clouds and the wind.  I see the life in the environment.  The trees have many leaves, but their trunks lack defining texture.  All of that attention to detail in the ground and trees have gone into the sky and the water.  

Here we have "Pollard Birches".  No sky, huge amounts of effort to detail the trees, the grass, the ground, the people...  The scene set to a focal point that everything follows perfectly.  His drawings are so calculated.  If you look closely at this one, on the left hand side there is water.  A small pool of water that has the reflection of the small tree next to it.  Such small refined detail.  One of my favorite things so far about his drawings is the use of negative space to create a blank sky that contrasts the drawing so well.

Let's have another comparing session.  This painting is "Wheatfield with Partridge".  Yes, the grass is there and it does have some comparable detailing...  The foliage in this painting is moving.  In the last drawing, everything is so still.  It's a singular moment caught in time.  With this painting, I feel as if I am suppose to be pushed to the side by the wind.  I need to bend with the sky.  I see the bird flying, but my mind sees a bird being carried by the currents of the air on a windy day.  Everything feels different in the painting.  Van Gogh uses lines in the paintings to show movement, and in his drawings to show it's absence. 

Seldom did Van Gogh draw the sun in the sky.  From what I found only a couple times did he give any detail to it.  When he drew rough drafts of his paintings, he drew the movement within.  But for a drawing he was going to leave a drawing, he made something akin to a photograph.  Like I said earlier, a singular moment in time, captured in a drawing.  I keep coming back to that phrasing when I look at them.  It has rattled my brain to see such a difference in art style from one medium to another medium that is not so dissimilar.  When I think of something you can learn from observing an artists work, not conforming to what's expected of you is not exactly what I had in mind.  Yet I love it.  Being different than expected, you don't have to be the same thing every time, but if you find something that works for you, do it as much as you want.

I'm in an art class currently, and I was tasked with attempting to imitate and artist who inspires me, while keeping my own touch within the artwork.  I thought a great deal about who inspires me.  I had to go with Van Gogh, as he moves my soul when I'm looking at his work.  Doing a deeper dive into his art work had me surprised to find these kinds of drawings.  I decided not to imitate his paintings and go for the drawing, although now that's done I would love to try his style of painting.  It's not much, but I tried my best Vincent.  

I copied the flow of the pathway from "Avenue of Poplars", the cross stitching style he uses in both "Avenue of Poplars" and "Pollard Birches", and the foliage from another drawing shown below.  I think it would more resemble Van Gogh had I left more sky baron on the left side.  Still, I'm happy with how it came out as this was my first attempt.  This was a fun assignment, if you feel so inclined, I recommend giving this strategy a try.  Find who inspires you, then try to imitate them without copying completely.

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This last drawing I'm sharing is the closest in my mind to his style of painting as I had found.  The last drawing I'm leaving you with is called, "The Rock of Montmajour with Pine Trees".  

Now it's your turn.  What do you see that's different about this drawing compared to Van Gogh's painting style?  Do you agree that out of the three drawings this one is much closer to his painting style?  Let me know in the comments!  Until next time.